FA Cup Fifth Round Preview: Newport County Aim to Shock England’s Leaders and a Battle at the Bridge

NEWPORT, WALES - FEBRUARY 05: A fan with a tin foil FA Cup during the FA Cup Fourth Round Replay match between Newport County AFC and Middlesbrough at Rodney Parade on February 05, 2019 in Newport, United Kingdom. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

The FA Cup, remarkably, enters its fifth-round stage this weekend with only three of the Premier League’s ‘top six’ left in the competition. Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were eliminated in the fourth round while Liverpool went out in round three.

With two of the remaining ‘big’ teams, Chelsea and Manchester United, set to play each other on Monday, the quarter-finals of this year’s FA Cup could throw up some unusual ties. Who could make it to that mark this weekend?

FA Cup Fifth Round Preview

Newport County v Manchester City

Newport have been well known for producing shocks in cup competitions through recent years, particularly after holding Spurs to a 1-1 draw last season, and this is by far the biggest reward they have seen for their efforts. Pep Guardiola’s band of superstars make the trip to the tiny Rodney Parade stadium in Saturday’s late kick-off aiming to avoid what would be an embarrassing defeat, but one that would send shockwaves around world football.

That game wasn’t the big shock, though. Instead, it was the Dons’ 4-2 win over West Ham United in the fourth round that had everybody talking. They were 3-0 up through Kwesi Appiah and Scott Wagstaff‘s double before Lucas Perez and Felipe Anderson threatened to bring the Hammers back into it. However, 19-year-old Toby Sibbick headed in the goal that confirmed victory and sent them through to play Millwall.

Both sides have surely already achieved their target for this competition by reaching the fifth round, but the right to say that they were quarter-finalists in the 2018/19 season is an accolade that neither will want to pass up – this has the potential to be the tie of the weekend.

Chelsea v Manchester United

Who doesn’t love two of the big boys meeting each other in the FA Cup? Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have already knocked Arsenal out of this year’s competition and, even after suffering their first loss under the Norweigan at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain this week, they will firmly believe that they can do the same to a Chelsea side that are stuttering under Maurizio Sarri.

Nat has been writing about MK Dons at LWOS since August 2015, when he was 16. He became an editor at the start of the 2017/18 season and a Managing Editor three months later. Outside of writing, he enjoys watching his local teams, MK Dons and Leighton Town, as much as possible.